The Pentagon has acknowledged that the number of U.S. troops in Syria is approximately 2,000, more than double the previously reported figure of 900. Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder explained that the additional forces are temporary rotational units deployed to support the mission against Islamic State militants.

Kurdish fighters in Syria will either lay down their weapons or "be buried," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned. Erdogan was speaking in the parliament when he warned to eradicate terrorist organisations' trying to weave a wall of blood' between the Turkish and Kurdish.